如果復興原住民族語言主要的目標是要創造新的說話者，這將是一場漫長的抵抗、協商與轉變的過程，那麼我們在家庭和學校振興原住民族語言的過程是否已經朝向達成此一目的？若不是如此，我們在復興傳統語言的過程中遭遇了什麼樣的阻礙？我們又該如何激發原住民族語言的活力？透過民族誌的研究方法，我們跟三個分別來自原鄉部落和都會地區的阿美族家庭形成合作的關係，以參與觀察他們在日常生活中的語言實踐，進而分析這些合作家庭可能存在的語言意識型態組合，以及形成家庭語言轉變的模式，或對原住民族語言振興的實踐產生的影響。在比較這三個家庭背景的語言意識型態組合和語言實踐之後，我們認為賦予或重建原住民族語言在家庭和學校教育場域的重要地位和聲望，有助於逆轉家庭以華語為中心的社會化過程，而這些絕大部分有賴於原住民族在語言和教育上的自主權或主權來實現。

關鍵字：原住民族語言復興、阿美族家庭、語言意識型態、自主權、社會化

       Speakers of Taiwan’s Indigenous languages have faced innumerable obstacles throughout history, in large part due to nationalist language policies enforced during Japanese occupation and under KMT martial law. In recent decades, democratized Taiwan has sought to protect, maintain, and revitalize these endangered languages through a variety of nationwide initiatives, but a number of bottom-up programs have been established as well. Tamorak is Taiwan’s first Indigenous language school, located in Makota’ay village in eastern Taiwan. With Waldorf education as its pedagogical basis, Tamorak prioritizes engagement with nature, music, the arts, and storytelling through Pangcah (Amis), the most widely spoken Indigenous language in the country. Founded in 2015, Tamorak looks to language as a cornerstone of cultural preservation and centers its diverse curriculum around the Pangcah language. Students, from a variety of Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds, are strongly encouraged to speak Pangcah as well as other non-Mandarin languages while at school, but Mandarin remains the primary peer language outside of the classroom. In practice, however, the boundaries between languages are permeable, and students and teachers alike often engage in language mixing and language play throughout the school day.   

        This paper explores the ways in which these children enact agency through their interactions with teachers and with one another, with particular attention to language choice and linguistic practices. Rather than focus on language use in a community over time, this paper investigates language practices in the moment and the speakers themselves. Drawing from a breadth of literature that highlights the role of child agency in language learning environments, the present study examines dialogue in and out of the classroom through a micro-interactional approach, considering language choice as strategic, agentive action. What is the role of child agency in mother tongue education? How do children’s language choices in everyday interactions relate to their language attitudes and ideologies? This paper emphasizes the incredible competence that Tamorak students exhibit in both Pangcah and Mandarin and the ways in which this competence empowers them as students and as people, demonstrating that language learning “success” emerges in various forms.

關鍵字：agency, communities of practice, Pangcah (Amis), language choice, language socialization

        On a Sunday in April, a Presbyterian pastor begins the church service rehearsing hymns with ten congregant members already present, as other Pangcah (Amis) community members trickle in. The hymns are first sung in Pangcah, before a Mandarin translation is projected on the screen. The songs are familiar to congregant members, but not memorized, and the pastor aims to rehearse the melody as well as the reading of romanized Pangcah with her congregant members, all with different levels of reading ability, but for whom the average age is around sixty years old. Every Sunday morning, religion and language realities meet, both during the thirty minutes of hymn rehearsal and throughout the subsequent two-hour service. This reality is not unique to one specific church, but rather can be observed in many Pangcah Presbyterian churches in Hualien County.  When the Council of Indigenous Peoples announced the “Church of Indigenous Peoples Award Program for Indigenous Language Development” in 2022, the question of time was at the center. Still active today, the award program appears to be a clear exchange of capital – the government offering economic capital in exchange for improved language revitalization efforts by Indigenous peoples in churches. While cultural capital, specifically in this case Indigenous language revitalization, takes time, economic capital can be transmitted rather quickly, thus raising questions about the aims of a project such as this, but even more so calling for further examination of the church’s role in modern-day language revitalization efforts in Indigenous communities. Focusing on comparative ethnography of Pangcah language realities in several Presbyterian church communities in Hualien County, this paper looks at the long-term demands of language revitalization, specifically as they relate to the church, up against short-term government initiatives, such as the award program mentioned above. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of capital and Eckert’s sociolinguistic interpretation of communities of practice, this paper assesses whether the modern-day Indigenous Presbyterian church has an agentive role to play in Pangcah language revitalization, and if so, how? This question only encourages further inquiry into the tension between traditional and “imported” religions, generational divides, and the race against time that always feels to be at the center of language revitalization efforts and research. An ethnographic approach that focuses on bottom-up language realities and revitalization efforts makes it clear that the church offers key resources needed for successful language learning but that challenges of implementation as well as those that arise between differing approaches by the church and state still exist.

關鍵字：Pangcah (Amis), language revitalization, communities of practice, Presbyterian Church (PCT), capital

        With Taiwan’s economic boom in the 1960s, rapid urbanization in the capital city Taipei brought forth massive labor migration towards the north. Pangcah working adults of the era moved away from Hualien and Taitung, bringing their families to the city and congregating in specific suburban spots in then Taipei County. After settling down for two generations, urban Pangcah children now face the risk of losing their mother tongue, owing to the enormous pressure within a majority-Mandarin education system and an unfriendly language ideology in the metropolis.

      Answering the call of the national initiative to promote teaching of local languages in 2021, the Council of Indigenous Peoples has thus further promoted its ten-year-old “Indigenous Language Immersive Learning for Preschools” to new heights. For the Pangcah people in Zhangshu Bay, home to one of the most densely populated Indigenous metropolitan settlements in Taiwan, language revitalization is an uphill battle due to the heavy influence of Mandarin in the area. In Spring 2023, the Affiliated Kindergarten of Zhangshu Elementary School launched the Pangcah language immersion classes. Stakeholders at the kindergarten ask themselves: Do we have enough teachers to meet the demands of numerous young Pangcah families? How are we going to teach the kids about the lifestyle of Pangcah back in our tribal village? Are our kids motivated to speak the Pangcah language within their social circle after all these lessons?

      This paper aims to look into the realities of Indigenous immersion learning in an urban kindergarten, and how challenges of the urban setting could be overcome. The only Pangcah language teacher at Zhangshu Kindergarten gathers all the resources that she has on hand, bringing in community elders from the nearby cultural health center, establishes relationships with willing parents, and seeks the support from fellow teachers. This is a laborious process, but one that cannot be overlooked if long-term results are to be seen. Through the theory of communities of practice, we can work to understand how various members of Zhangshu community gather and work towards a single purpose of teaching Pangcah to the children, hoping that the language will stay with them in their growing-up years. Yet, continuous support from the school administration is the key to a sustainable immersion program, rather than staying in the experimental stage or abandoning efforts altogether when it does not work. Indeed, this slow work, which requires investment by all stakeholders, is a collaborative process.

關鍵字：Pangcah (Amis), communities of practice, language revitalization, Indigenous language immersion, language ideology